Struck by object

A few months ago I was at work in the oilfield. I was struck by some tongs along the right side of my face.

To simplify everything:

I was moving toward the tongs at 3mph. I am 6'1" and was struck by an object 3" thick around 5'6" off the ground. (my cheek) The tongs were moving around 70 mph and weigh in around 750 lbs. Let's assume they were right angles , no movement on my part (whiplash, absorbsion by neck movement).. just a simple answer of how hard I was hit in psi or impact force or whatever can be derived from the information I have stated.

Staff: Mentor

Glad you survived, Tarful. I have to agree with Berkeman, though; it must have been a glancing impact, which would make it very difficult to determine how much force was actually applied to you. If it came straight at you, you shouldn't be here. Think of comparing it to someone dropping a bowling ball on your head from a second-floor window... the tongs would have had more energy than that by a long way.
I hope it's not too long before you can enjoy a steak again.

Been eating steaks for a long time. Well, about 6 weeks anyway. The injury happened June 9 2006 at 7:12 pm .. lol i dont think i'll forget that date.

So, what formula can I punch in to find out what force those tongs had when they were moving. I just want to see the potential of those tongs. Alot of people have asked me how much force the tongs produce when they snap like that. I just wanted to see if I could give them an answer.

Staff: Mentor

tarful said:

So, what formula can I punch in to find out what force those tongs had when they were moving. I just want to see the potential of those tongs. Alot of people have asked me how much force the tongs produce when they snap like that. I just wanted to see if I could give them an answer.

Force is the the acceleration of an object multiplied by the mass of the object, or as we usually write it, F=ma.

Staff: Mentor

These guys are right - I don't think anything you can caluclate here would be at all useful. The kinetic energy of this object at 73 mph is equal to if it had been dropped onto your face from about 180 feet. That's a full dumpster dropped on you from ten stories.

Suffice to say, when it hit you, it simply knocked your face out of its way.

Figure 2-3" of crushing and distortion of facial bones and tissues, and you're looking at 2-3 milliseconds contact time (you didn't slow the tongs down enough to matter too much in the calculation). 2-3 milliseconds to get you to 100 fps? A "square" hit gets you to the 1000 g neighborhood. 200 g is fatal (basal skull fracture) for race drivers w'out exotic head restraints built into helmets. Crush your head flat in 5-6 ms, and you're down to 400-500 g. Add a couple inches (and ms) for mashing your hard hat --- or did this give you an "uppercut?" You are one lucky roughneck.

Staff: Mentor

Yeah, I was thinking about that on my ride home - the kinetic energy of the tongs don't matter because that energy isn't transferred to your face. All you have is the energy of your head being accelerated to 73mph.

Your face acts like a "crumple zone" in a car here - the crumpling adds distance and therefore time to decrease the acceleration/ acceleration force.

They're going to love you at airports.
Bloody hell! I haven't had that many screws since I got married. I guess future MRI's are out of the question.
By the bye, I believe that those are clamps, not scissors.